The present invention pertains to the harvesting of fruits or nuts, hereinafter sometimes referred to merely as "fruit." More particularly, the present invention pertains to the mechanical harvesting from trees or bushes of citrus fruits, various types of nut crops such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, and other types of fruits such as apples, plums, pears and the like which are to be gathered, processed and canned.
Considerable efforts have been directed toward development of a reliable and efficient harvester apparatus whereby the mechanical picking of fruit can be accomplished at low cost relative to hand-picking, without excessive damage being done to either the fruit being picked or the tree which bears it. Examples of such efforts to develop a practical harvester, and also the persistancy of the problems associated therewith, can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,040,507; 3,129,551; 3,200,575; 3,425,202; 3,440,809; 3,485,024; 3,496,705; 3,522,696 and 3,561,205.
For various reasons, previous harvesters have not proven altogether practical and thus have not been readily accepted throughout the industry. They have, for instance, been rejected as too slow at the picking process, as leaving too much fruit on the trees, as being damaging to the foliage of the trees and/or to the fruit thereon, or as being mechanically unreliable.
Miller et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,696 disclose a harvester for fruits or nuts which comprises tine means including a pair of rotary drive shafts colinearly arranged on a vertical axis, each of the shafts being independently movable thereon and having a plurality of horizontal tines secured to and extending radially outward therefrom. Reciprocating means are also provided for effecting opposite upward and downward linear reciprocatory movement of the drive shafts on the vertical axis so that the tines can be moved up and down while also being rotated through horizontal planes.
It should be noted, however, that the apparatus and method of Miller et al require that the horizontal movement of the picking tines relative to a tree be zero, so that neither the tree nor the fruit thereon realize any horizontal movement by the tines. In fact, horizontal rotation of the tines is in a direction opposite to that in which the harvester moves around a tree, thus negating any horizontal movement of the tines which would otherwise be brought to bear on tree foliage and the fruit thereon during movement of the harvester apparatus relative to a tree being picked. Consequently, a tree being picked by the apparatus of Miller et al realizes only upward and downward movement of the picking tines. The stated purpose of tine movement in this fashion is avoidance of tearing and damaging of the limbs and branches of the tree. It will be appreciated, however, that any movement of tree limbs and branches in order to shake off the fruit is limited only to such movement as can be effected by moving the picking tines up and down in the absence of any horizontal movement thereof relative to tree being picked.
Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide for the harvesting of fruits or nuts whereby the aforesaid problems associated with previous harvesters are avoided.
A principle object of the invention is to provide mechanical harvesting of fruit or nuts wherein tree branches are lifted upward and are then allowed to fall freely so that separation of the fruit or nuts from the tree occurs when the branches snap quickly upward after being allowed to fall.
Still another object is to provide efficient mechanical harvesting of fruits or nuts whereby the picking and gathering thereof is faster and cheaper than picking and gathering by hand.
Still another object is to provide for mechanical harvesting of fruits or nuts whereby a high percentage thereof is more quickly removed from a tree and gathered so that time and cost of mechanical harvesting are minimized.
Yet another object is to provide reliable apparatus and process for the harvesting of fruit.
Even another object is to provide mechanical harvesting in conformity with the previously stated objects while also avoiding excessive damage to tree foliage and the fruit being harvested.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments and from the appended claims.